I have this Dell XPS M170 laptop, er… craptop. It’s actually a warranty replacement for its predecessor, a XPS laptop that chronically overheated itself into uselessness. Last month, Dell sent out a service technician for my quarterly LCD display panel replacement (OK, it’s the 4th one in 14 months). Part of the normal replacement is to attach some rubber bumpers on the display panel enclosure. They have non-reusable adhesive, so each LCD replacement requires a new set — Dell usually sends the bumpers in a separate box that could probably fit a case of 10,000 sets. Anyway, this time they forgot to send them, so the tech just reattached the old ones which starting falling off by the time he was driving away.
I email Dell, via their unresolved issues link on the website, and request they send the rubber bumpers I need. They ship them overnight in — surprise — a small bubble pack, rather than the usual gargantuan box. OK, these are just tiny little rubber nubs that fit over the screw holes on the plastic LCD laptop display enclosure. There is nothing special about them. Just rubber, maybe a 1/4 inch in diameter, no precious metals or stones, or anything like that. If you got these, would you expect you need to return the old ones? No, me neither. And yet, today I receive an invoice from Dell expecting me to pay for them because I didn’t return the old ones. They did not originally make that request, and did not provide any instructions or packaging for return. The most amazing part is that Dell invoiced me $69.47. They believe these tiny rubber bits are worth about $11 a piece (plus tax). Really! See for yourself.
I guess they need to reaffix adhesive and use them as refurbished rubber bits. Am I surprised? No, because my experience with Dell is that they are largely incompetent and the quality of their hardware is about rock bottom. And don’t get me started on their so-called customer service.
So is the fact that Dell is losing market share to HP, etc. really any kind of mystery?
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okay, so after reading what you have to say about Dell, i think you just had a bad expierence with them. Did you ever think maybe it overheated due to you leaving it on too much? I also have a dell and i have had it for about 5 or 6 months and it works great, it’s pretty much perfect. and what do you mean “And don’t get me started on their so-called customer service.” i spilled water on my laptop and i called them cause it wouldn’t turn on and i think i waited about 5 minutes at the most for someone on the line. which is not too much time at all because Dell would obviously have a lot of calls comming in, so sometimes you have to wait. Anyway, i got through to someone and he walked me through everything, step by step. Later, my computer was working perfectly. So um, you probably just dont know how to take care of your computer and LCD pannel, and maybe if you did you wouldnt have so many problems.
thanks,
bye.
Yeah, I did have a bad experience with Dell…lots of them. And I am not the only one.
Just because you don’t have problems doesn’t mean that those who do have no legitimate complaints. A Dell XPS shouldn’t overheat. It’s designed for gaming (as claimed by Dell), which places the most intense processor demands (and thus heat resistance requirements) of just about any activity. That’s why I bought it, since I do mostly software development and photo processing — to have something robust and reliable.
Your response to turn it off is the same ridiculous one the Dell help desk drone gave. Where in the manual does it say “turn off at night to prevent overheating.” He couldn’t say, can you? And just what is it you think I do to my LCD panels that warrants poor care? Maybe I display too many colors?? Or not enough? (BTW: they all had different kinds of failure.)
“So um” don’t be so damn condescending if you don’t really know what you’re talking about.
I always take care not to display too many colors on my LCD screens… Anyone who needs more than 32 colors is just asking for trouble.
Wow, you get to display a whole 32 colors…all simultaneously? Lucky you! I’ll bet Brittany is green with envy.
Hell yeah - Dell sucks big time - cheap plastic, overheating; had a touchpad that made the cursor move by itself at times. Shitty customer support - had to use my credit card company to force them to give me a refund.
Once I went to HP, there was no turning back. The quality of plastic and features for the price says it all - no comparison.